Can you imagine going to a baseball game and not being able to keep up with what’s happening by looking at the big scoreboard? Without a scoreboard, you’d have no earthly idea how to interpret what’s happening on the field and no consistent way to know whether the guy who just hit a home run was going to put the team he was playing for in the lead. There’d be no context to assess how well anyone is doing or how far along the game is. None of the players on the field would have any incentive to come out on game day and give it their all. There’d be no way to know how to get better — it just wouldn’t matter. And most frustrating of all, everyone would have a very different way of keeping score, so it would be a continual debate over who really “won” and who helped the team achieve victory.
The experience would be boring and frustrating for the fans and tedious for the players.
That’s sort of the way it is with mobile payments today. On any given day, there are updates about the movers and shakers shaping the payments ecosystem. But there is no consistent way of tracking the numbers and the moves and the shakes.
That’s why, this week, we thought it was time to make one.
Meet the PYMNTS Mobile Payments Scorecard that will help you keep track of the stats and facts about all of the players whose names have “Pay” in them somewhere and are looking to reinvent how we use mobile and digital devices to pay for things. We’ll update this every time these players make any moves, so you don’t have to scrounge the Web to find out the latest stats and facts.
And every Thursday, we’ll recap the moves and the shakes of those players — and the new ones that enter the scene.
The collective tech world got its first look at how Apple plans to reinvent the way that consumers shop and pay (merchants), curate and consume (information) and get their groove on (listen to music) at the WWDC on Monday. Day 1 (June 8) included about 120 minutes of announcements that touted Apple Pay’s global expansion, its new retail partnerships, Passbook’s makeover to Wallet, iOS 9, and Apple Watch enhancements, among others.
Apple Pay’s global expansion, however, was the biggest news for the payments community. Apple announced that Apple Pay will be accepted at 250,000 U.K. merchants starting next month (July 2015).
Coffee and doughnuts (or donuts, in this case) may soon be coming to a doorstep near you. Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Nigel Travis recently announced the company’s plans to expand into mobile ordering and delivery as early as next year. The company is developing its mobile ordering and conducting private tests of the platform.
In the meantime, customers will see a new payment option in the Dunkin’ mobile app. Visa Checkout is now integrated within the app to allow a fast and easy way to purchase and reload virtual Dunkin’ Donuts cards, the company announced Monday (June 8).
Will Android Pay miss out on collecting transaction fees from issuers? That was the question that kicked off the week.
When Android Pay launches, there will be one big difference between Google’s mobile payment service and Apple’s: Google won’t get a cut of the interchange fees on transactions. A Wall Street Journal report detailing the subject discusses how this could leave Google missing out on one of the ways that Apple has been able to monetize its mobile payments service.
When Apple launched Apple Pay, issuers were lining up to fork over a slice of credit card interchange to take a bite of Apple Pay. But terms have changed now and just in time for the Android Pay launch. Some suggest the “no fee” provision of Android Pay might “eventually give Google’s Android Pay an edge.” But that’s up for debate because just about every bank that matters has signed on to Apple Pay. Will that actually matter when it comes to banks’ interest in Android Pay? Only time will tell.
MasterPass has officially entered Belgium — with the help of Buy Way.
That means that Belgians can put the entire content of their wallets in MasterPass, which eliminates the need to dig into that physical wallet for payment and loyalty cards. Because MasterPass is an open wallet, in addition to MasterCard cards, consumers can use and store other branded credit, debit and prepaid cards.
In other MasterPass news, Wayfair.com customers will soon have access to a new way to shop when the mobile wallet is included as a payment option this fall. The online retailer of home goods and furnishings and its portfolio of brands, which include AllModern, Birch Lane, DwellStudio and Joss & Main, announced its plans to provide an easier shopping experience to customers by featuring the mobile payment option.
PayPal’s One Touch for Web is now global. The company announced this week that it is expanding to merchants and consumers internationally, starting with Canada and the U.K. The next countries to experience One Touch are not known yet, but the rollout will continue over the summer.
Samsung Pay will launch soon, but not until September. Late last week, PYMNTS got the inside scoop from Will Graylin, Global Co-GM of Samsung Pay and CEO of LoopPay, about just what was behind the decision to delay Samsung Pay.
“The delay of launch is not because of any softness on Samsung’s commitment or capabilities to get the product out,” Graylin told MPD CEO Karen Webster in an exclusive interview. Graylin noted that the delay was pushed back to a key month for Samsung: September — which is when we could see the introduction of Samsung’s next “flagship” smartphone product.
And still crickets from CurrentC.
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